The present invention relates to a rear combination lamp used for an automobile etc. and, more particularly, relates to the structure of a lamp body for realizing a good contacting state between a terminal provided at a socket and a conductor wired at the lamp body.
Various kinds of related rear combination lamps used in vehicles such as automobiles etc. have been known. For example, a rear combination lamp 41 shown in FIG. 10 is formed by a lamp body 42 and a socket 60. The rear combination lamp is arranged in a manner that, when the socket 60 is attached to the lamp body 42, a lamp 66 attached to the socket 60 can be coupled to conductors 47 wired at a wiring portion 46 formed at the lamp body 42.
The lamp body 42 is configured by a socket holder 43 formed in a hollow and almost frustum shape and a lens portion 44 formed integrally at the bottom face of the socket holder 43. The lower portion of a socket inlet 45 is formed in a hollow shape and provided at a not-shown inner wall thereof with a reflection mirror for suppressing the loss of light of the lamp within the lamp body 42.
The peripheral wall on the upper face of the socket holder 43 is bent so as to expand toward the center direction of the socket inlet 45 to form the annular wiring portion 46. The conductors 47 are wired on the upper face of the wiring portion 46. The wiring portion 46 is provided at the inner peripheral wall thereof with guide grooves 49 for fitting with bayonets 65 formed on the socket 60.
The four guide grooves 49 are formed at the peripheral edge of the socket inlet 45 with an interval of 90 degrees. The wiring portion 46 is divided into four pieces by the guide grooves 49 and each of the conductors 47 is wired in an arc shape on the associated one of the four pieces of the wiring portion. The conductors 47 are wired so as to be buried within wiring grooves 48 formed on the wiring portion 46 as shown in FIG. 11.
The wiring portion 46 is provided at the outer side portion thereof with eight welding ribs 51 for fixing the conductors 47 and eight rectify ribs 71 serving as bending fulcrums when wiring the conductors 47 near the welding ribs 51. Thus, the both end portions of each of the conductors 47 are bent by the associated rectify ribs 71 and welded in a state being sandwiched by the associated welding ribs 51, respectively.
The diameter of the socket holder 45 and the number of the guide grooves 49 etc. are not limited to predetermined values and changed in accordance with the standard of the lamp 66 attached to the socket inlet 45.
As shown in FIG. 11, the socket 60 is formed by a socket body 61 and a flange 62 of a circular plate shape and arranged in a manner that terminals 67 are housed within the socket body 61. Each of the terminals 67 includes a contact 67a whose one end is provided with elasticity. The terminals are inserted in a fitting manner into the socket body 61 in a manner that the contacts 67a protrude on the face of the flange 62 from the side face of the socket body 61.
The socket body 61 is provided on the side wall face thereof with the bayonets 65 for positioning and engaging which are fitted into the guide grooves 49 when attaching the socket 60 to the socket inlet 45. The bayonets 65 are provided in correspondence with the number and the positions of the guide grooves 49. In this example, four bayonets 65 are provided.
When attaching the socket 60 to the aforesaid lamp body 42, as shown in FIG. 10, the socket is inserted within the socket inlet 45 in the direction shown by an arrow B such that the socket body 61 is directed downward. In this case, upon inserting the socket, the socket body is positioned so as to align the bayonets 65 to the associated guide grooves 49, respectively. The guide grooves 49 are formed to have different shapes so as to prevent the erroneous insertion of the socket 60, and the bayonets 65 are formed to have the configurations matched to the associated guide grooves 49, respectively.
When the guide grooves 49 are aligned to the associated bayonets 65, respectively, the socket body 61 can be fitted within the socket inlet 45. In this case, the socket body 61 is inserted into the socket inlet 45 and then rotated in the direction shown by an arrow C thereby to attach the socket 60 to the lamp body 42. Thus, as shown in FIG. 11, the contacts 67a contact to the conductors 47, whereby the lamp 66 attached to the socket body 61 can be electrically connected.
The conductors 47 are buried within the wiring grooves 48 formed on the wiring portion 46. Thus, when the socket body 61 is inserted within the socket inlet 45 and rotated in the direction shown by the arrow C, although the contacts 67a slide on the conductors 47, the conductors 47 are prevented from moving out of the wiring grooves 48, whereby the contacts 67a can be surely made in contact with the conductors 47.
According to the aforesaid related rear combination lamp, in the case of attaching the socket 60 to the lamp body 42, the bayonets 65 are aligned to the associated guide grooves 49, respectively, then the socket body 61 is fitted within the socket inlet 45 and then inserted in the direction shown by the arrow B. However, in this case, there is a case that the socket body is further pushed in after the contacts 67a have been brought into contact with the conductors 47.
When the socket body is pushed in excessively in this manner, the contacts 67a are crushed to raise an excessive deformation and so the elasticity of the contacts is degraded. As a result, there arises a problem that the contacts 67a are subjected to the plastic deformation and so the contacting state between the contacts and the conductors 47 becomes failure.
Accordingly, the invention has been made in view of the aforesaid problem of the related art, and an object of the invention is to provide a rear combination lamp which prevents the excessive deformation of contacts at the time of attaching a lamp socket to a lamp body thereby to surely prevent the contact failure between conductors and the contacts.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a lamp device comprising:
a socket body for holding a lamp;
a socket holder provided with a socket inlet into which the socket body is inserted; and
a stop rib formed on the socket holder in the vicinity of the socket inlet so as to restrict an insertion amount of the socket body.
Preferably, the socket body is provided with a terminal contact, and the socket holder is provided with a conductor which is to be electrically connected with the terminal contact when the socket body is inserted into the socket inlet. Here, the stop rib restricts a further insertion of the socket body when the terminal contact is brought into contact with the conductor.
Preferably, the socket holder is provided with a first face on which the stop rib and the conductor are provided, and the socket body is provided with a second face opposing to the first face, on which the terminal is provided. Here, a top face of the stop rib is brought into contact with the second face when the terminal contact is brought into contact with the conductor.
Preferably, bayonets are provided on an outer periphery of the socket body, and the socket inlet is formed with guide grooves for respectively receiving the associated bayonets. A plurality of stop ribs are provided in the vicinity of the respective guide grooves.
Preferably, one of inner side faces of the respective guide grooves includes a tapered face.
According to the above structure, at the time of attaching the socket body to the socket holder, the bayonets formed at the socket body are aligned in correspondence with the guide grooves, respectively, and then the socket body is inserted into the socket inlet. As a result, the terminal contact provided at the second face of the socket body is brought into contact with the conductor on the first face of the lamp body, and the second face of the socket body abuts against the stop ribs, whereby the socket body is prevented from being further inserted into the socket inlet. Namely, the contact can be prevented from being applied with an excessive force.
Therefore, since the plastic deformation of the contact is prevented and the elastic function thereof is not degraded, the failure of the lighting operation of the lamp due to the contact failure between the contact and the conductor can be surely prevented.